SNCGrad

Has any major soccer/football league had a consistent disciplinary committee? Not sure about the EPL. Going by the other big sports around North America, they have very hard and fast rules about disciplinary actions. Maybe MLS should look into how they do things.

Also, shame on ESPN for not showing the fist 30 minutes of the game! I missed the only two goals that mattered because of the bleeping Euro match between England and Italy. Can't they at least tape delay MLS action for those of us not lucky enough to be in PDX at the time?!

Agreed. Let's see what kind of a performance we would get out of Jake Gleeson. After all, wasn't it said that Perkins is the present, but Gleeson is the future for this team in net? And if I recall correctly, he played very well last year when Perkins was injured. I know that in hockey, at least, if your goalie isn't up to snuff for a few games, you go with another one. We should give that a chance here.

Respectfully, I disagree. Dike is in much better shape than most guys on this roster. To say that he isn't MLS quality is inaccurate. He has dominated the pitch in the reserve team games, he can still create a size mismatch if they would put him on the field. I would say that, at this point, it would be more than worth trying him out for a game or two, if only as a sub.

Am I the only one who sees that having Dike out to start with Boyd would be a good idea? Come one, two big men with eyes for the goal? Maybe this is why the Timbers might do well to consider a 4-3-3 setup. Too much talent to let sit on the bench.

And since when do a loud minority of the populace equal "The Public"? Why should we ALL get the shaft because a few don't want to chip in?

As for Vancouver: Yeah, that's one of the reasons I moved out of the second rate city. No idea of moving forward, despite the clear and present need to do so. The idea that "keeping the RIF-raf" out of Vancouver means not letting light rail come across the river is so asinine it makes one wonder how these people function with such cognitive dissonance.

I guess people want to keep ranting and raving about all the potholes and traffic jams on I-5 and I-205 because they have nothing better to do with their time and energy.

Speaking as a frequenter of PDX who now lives in Kenosha, WI, I would kill to have some of these "tens of jobs" that spend millions of dollars come to the Midwest in any other city not named Chicago. You obviously don't know a good trend when you see one. The intangibles of this situation that can lead to some unexpected new business opportunities are never fully realized until a few years later. Puff out your chest all you want; people will still look at you as if you are holding in a fart.

In a perfect world, we'd see Cooper, Dike, and either Perlaza or Nagbe up front of a 4-3-3 set up, but somehow, I think that's just a pipe dream for such a young squad. Either way, I agree, letting Cooper go would not be in the Timbers' best interests.

While it would be nice to get a player of the Landon Donovan caliber, or even of the Oguchi Onyewo caliber, I'm not complaining about getting a Jack Jewsbury or a Kenny Cooper, or even a Jorge Perlaza. We don't need to spend a kings ransom to get wins. Chemistry, above all else, is what matters.

Plus, next season, we'll have a twin towers aspect with us: Bright Dike will be healthy. Putting him AND Cooper upfront is enough to make one salivate at the prospects. :-)

There is an existing example in pro sports for this idea not working: the NHL. Sure, you get more games between rivals, but you don't get much exposure with teams from another conference. For example, Vancouver almost never plays Montreal or Ottawa, and vice versa.

Before the lockout, you'd play 4 games against rivals and at least 2 games against teams outside the conference. Now? You're lucky if you play 5 teams from the east or west, depending upon where you are. You see less of the major star players, which can really pack the fans into the stadiums. I think we should keep things as they are and just broadcast all of the Cascadia Cup games instead of just the Timbers-Sounders games on national TV.